Eating Disorders Affect Children As Young As Six

March 27th, 2007

National figures have shown that over a 13 month period, 206 children under the age of 12 were treated for an eating disorder in Britain and Ireland. One girl of just six years old showed signs of an eating disorder, including food avoidance, fear of weight gain and excessive exercising, however was not officially diagnosed with anorexia as she wasn’t severely underweight.

Figures from research conducted at the Paediatric Surveillance Unit estimated that 3.5 children in every 100,000 in the UK are treated for an eating disorder. The youngest child to be diagnosed with anorexia was eight years old.